I am very troubled by what has happened in the United Kingdom politically, especially in the last year. I won't go into full details in this post but will explain in another why this is such a dangerous and frightening situation. A carefully balanced constitutional arrangement in Britain dating from the late seventeenth century has been wrecked and will be demolished shortly. That this collapse in even limited democracy should happen so fast and within my own lifetime shocks me. Not to mention the proposal to remove human rights. This from a country that was instrumental in promoting them, notably after the horrors of World War 2.
I started this blog in 2011 in an effort to show trans people that living authentically as themselves in Britain was not only possible but enjoyable. As a trans person - indeed, just as a person - I don't feel safe in the UK any more, and I won't return.
My efforts to settle elsewhere - currently in Italy - are progressing slowly but surely. I have my permit to stay under European rules, which doubles as a residence certificate. I now have an ID card, too, albeit in my boy name. From January, I can get a health card that enables me to use the national health service and can stop paying for private health insurance (required under European rules). I have put in my application for Italian citizenship, which I am entitled to do under an old law of 1912 that grants it to anyone who had an Italian ancestor. So if you can prove you were descended from Julius Caesar then you can be an Italian citizen, too. (OK, I exaggerate.) That's important to me as I'd rather live in a liberal democracy with human rights and a health service than under a dictatorship or oligarchy. Besides, they've got cool sports cars here and, well, what girl can resist that?
I am spending Christmas with a relative of mine (a Mr Caesar), so no pretty frocks this year. But at least I am enjoying considerably better weather than in previous Christmases in the UK. I'll post again before Christmas Day to send my readers greetings, but right now I remain troubled.
Sue x
I promise not to give your name to the Trans Finder General. Well, except as one of the many who got away. ;-)
ReplyDeleteAs someone left of the centre, the idea of how things stand does not full me with hope. However, maybe we - as a nation - need to go through populism to see that the evidence outweighs the bluster.
Still, it could be worse ;-)
I feel very unhappy for people towards your end of the political spectrum, and for minorities like trans people. I fear for the future of all who feal defeated and overwhelmed right now. Sometimes, as you say, lessons can only be learned the hard way. It's just that I thought Britain had learned its lesson hundreds of years ago. We've forgotten it, evidently, as well as the lesson of other countries more recently. Sue x
DeleteOn the bright side, happy Christmas ;-)
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